COLLOQUY 2018 goes to Europe!

COLLOQUY 2018 was exhibited in Paris!
Centre Pompidou from February 26 – March 11, 2020

COLLOQUY 2018 has a permanent home!
ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany

Here is a summary of our time in Paris installing Colloquy — by all accounts, the goal of replicating Colloquy faithfully to its appearance and behaviors has been a success — and we also participated in a panel about the history and future of Cybernetics.

Wait... What? What is Colloquy? Read an intro here. Or watch a video here. Or jump right to reading about the completion of upgrades in advance of sending Colloquy to Europe.

Updated December 17, 2019: We have received our 501(c)(3) designation, making all donations (past and future) deductible as a public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 170. (We are also qualified now to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under Section 2055, 2106, or 2522.)

Updated September 1, 2019: We received an important piece of Colloquy history. Mark Dowson, responsible for the electronics of the original Colloquy of Mobiles from 1968, had an exchange in 2005 with Margit Rosen , long-time devotee and author about Colloquy. Dowson reveals additional details  about Colloquy’s behaviors, especially in regard to the sounds made by the mobiles (no known audio recording exists). This increases the importance of the funding we are seeking for upgrades before shipping Colloquy 2018 to Europe, as described below:

Please help us continue to support the furtherance of Cybernetics in all media! We have formed a non-profit corporation and are registered with the IRS and have obtained 501(c)(3) status so that donations can be deducted from US income tax. 

Aside from the small fees incurred by GoFundMe (2.9% plus $0.30 fee per donation), all of the money from donations will be applied to getting Colloquy ready for Europe.

Watch the video  about the history of Colloquy and its meaning for today. 
The installation features a family of “mobiles” that interact through light and sound with one another (machine-to-machine) as well as with gallery visitors (human-to-machine).

Here's some wonderful coverage from the highly-regarded Hyperallergic site.

You can also read about the COLLOQUY 2018 Project in a series of blog posts and explore the history and significance of Colloquy at the student-made website, ColloquyOfMobiles.com .

The COLLOQUY 2018 replica is an invitation to reflect on how we converse with our machines today, and to ask the question, “What do we want from our technology?”


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The Colloquy replica represents the power of Design in Detroit!
The COLLOQUY 2018 Project was undertaken at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, with generous support from private donors as well as the University of Waterloo (Canada) and Design Core Detroit.

During the Spring 2018 semester and the following summer months, the Masters in Interaction Design program at CCS hosted the creation of the replica from scratch, led by master fabricator TJ McLeish, who developed design plans from the historical record of the original Colloquy of Mobiles by Gordon Pask from 1968. TJ has been responsible for mechatronics, fabrication, digital hardware / software design and execution. The result is of such high quality that the world-class venues of Centre Pompidou and ZKM  want to exhibit it. 

In the next phase of reanimating Colloquy 2018 and making upgrades, TJ continues in the role of master fabricator. Paul Pangaro has been responsible for the concept, scientific advice, and overall direction of the COLLOQUY 2018 Project.

The reanimation took place at Omnicorp Collective in Eastern Market in Detroit, a perfect place to join the community of makers that represent Detroit's design spirit. From mid-November the work was transferred to ArtPack Services, where it will be crated and shipped to Paris.

We ask that you please share this page with your network of colleagues and friends.

For questions and feedback, please contact Paul Pangaro at [email redacted].


COLLOQUY 2018 Project Advisory Board

Amanda Pask Heitler and Hermione Pask, Gordon Pask’s daughters and executors of his scientific and artistic estate

Jasia Reichardt, Curator of the original Cybernetic Serendipity Exhibition at the ICA in 1968

Albert Müller (deceased), Curator of the Gordon Pask Archive, University of Vienna

Andrew Pickering, Author of “The Cybernetic Brain”

Guilherme Kujawski, Writer, Teacher, and Co-Curator of Emoção Art.ficial, ITAU Cultural

Hugh Dubberly, Design Planner and Teacher

Karen Kornblum, Designer and Teacher, Carnegie Mellon University

John Plunkett, Designer and Co-founder, WiReD Magazine

Marc Schwartz, Co-founder, DLECTRICITY, Detroit

Vince Carducci, Media Critic and Dean of Undergraduate Affairs, College for Creative Studies, Detroit


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